Need the perfect horse injury

Broken leg. It used to mean euthanasia every time, but these days some breaks can be successfully treated but it means a long time nearly immobile in a serious cast.

I have a possible perfect situation based on a true story. Have the horse rear near a mostly solid fence (like a pipe fence- Way more common in the western us than the eastern US, but pretty common despite being unforgiving.)

The fence gives some and the horse has the front feet off the ground and is wedged in. If it struggles it may snap a leg or tear up it's chest. A wood fence would work too if heavy duty enough (more than planks which just snap).

People have to cut the fence away and if the horse panics it can do major damage and kill someone plus itself. The horse could even start to panic or fuss, tear skin, bleed 'massively' (even non critical bleeding looks HORRIBLE to the untrained eye because of how much it seems like, esp when it spreads over the ground, though thats harder in an arena). Thus more consideration if the horse should be euthanized.

T post injuries are also common, and though not normally part of an arena, some small fields with tposts are ridden in like arenas or the horse can leave the arena and run into or rear onto one being used for somethig else (a garden or anything).

Some fractures in an adult horse are okay for survival (but not always return to soundness), or breaking a small non weight bearing piece of bone. If you look at a horse and see a broken leg you better have over a million dollars for just the first month and the horse better have better luck than Barbaro.

For fractures the vet has to come out to radiograph, but that can happen in addition to whatever initial trauma and drama (but you cant do the thicker parts of the horse. So you cant check for a broken rib with rads in the field.)

Couldn't a portable ultrasound device be used?

A friend had an injury to her horse many years ago that may fit what you're looking for: the boarding stable had pipe fencing with round posts, but not capped (so think 6" wide open pipe posts). Her horse was playing and came down on one of those, impaling himself. They had two choices: euth immediately, or lift him off (using manpower and a tractor with a front-end loader they could use to get a sling around him). He stayed very calm through everything; they got him off the post and wrapped him tight, then hauled him for emergency surgery. Amazingly, he hit NOTHING vital. He was at the vet's for more than a month recuperating, but he's still around and kicking (but not at pipe posts!).

Tazlima said:

What sort of injuries occur if a horse falls over backward onto the rider?

Click to expand...

I had a horse fall over backwards once, although fortunately not on a rider. Turns out there's a fragile bit of neck/back of skull that can be struck when the horse hits its head. The horse literally never moved again - she was dead by the time we realised she wasn't going to get up.

As for an injury that would actually help the OP, I'd probably bet on the horse breaking the fence and sustaining a stabbing/slashing injury that requires daily treatment to keep it clean and free of infection. The same horse I mentioned in the previous paragraph cut her hind leg as a youngster and the cut had to be cleaned and dressed every day. If she hadn't been a calm, cooperative animal even that level of care would have been impossible.

Basically, any kind of injury that requires ongoing care relies on having a cooperative patient. The injury could be easily treated on my mare, but a death sentence for a wild horse.

I'd suspect the rodeo horse would be closer to 'pet' than 'wild', though. Remember they have to be able to be saddled, bridled, hosed down, hooves trimmed and even loaded onto a truck. The ones I've seen are well-behaved right up to the moment when the back strap on the saddle is tightened and some guy gets into the saddle.

Tazlima said:

OK horse people, I need your help. I'm looking for a horse injury that fits the following criteria.

1) It must be an acute injury, rather than an illness or an issue related to poor long-term care.

2) The injury is sustained in an attempt to throw a rider in an arena environment (Think rodeo bronco). It could also be sustained in a related activity (i.e. trying to jump into the stands after the rider is thrown).

3) It's serious enough that euthanasia may be considered, but not so bad that it's the only option.

4) The horse's temperament and ability to stay calm during treatment will greatly influence whether the owners choose to treat the injury or euthanize.

Anyone have the perfect solution?

Click to expand...

Horses can do all sorts of crazy injuries to themselves, you could have a break/fracture - doesn't have the be the leg.

You could have a deep would (from falling or kicking itself) that leads to infection - had a horses develop a really bad joint infection following a leg wound. Not pleasant and seriously considered putting him down - the vet actually advised it several times.

The horse could fall - I've known a couple of horses to knock themselves out stone cold from a bad fall/injury. It's pretty scary because it can take days before they have any sort of balance and working out the damage can be hard, and long term you just don't know what's going to happen.

Impaling on something - broken fence etc, can cause a really bad wound that can become infected very very quickly.

Fenika said:

Some fractures in an adult horse are okay for survival (but not always return to soundness), or breaking a small non weight bearing piece of bone. If you look at a horse and see a broken leg you better have over a million dollars for just the first month and the horse better have better luck than Barbaro.

Click to expand...

Tazlima said:

I didn't know that broken legs weren't a death sentence anymore. That's awesome!

Click to expand...

The horse I have now broke his back leg about six years ago. Three different vets said to put him down, one took one look at the fracture and said it was clean and should heal okay. He said if it was the front leg he wouldn't even consider it. But after 2 months of box rest (not fun for a horse used to living out) and then another two months of in hand walking, he was allowed back in the field - of course, despite the sedation, he went buck daft and spent twenty minutes letting off steam.

Long story short, within a couple of months he was riding again and by the end of the year he was competing at riding club again. Now he's getting older I notice that he's a little stiffer in that leg and he needs more warming up and stretching, but generally you would never know he'd had such an injury.

I should note that this horse is known locally as something of a captain scarlett - he's the same horse who had the joint infection, and he's contracted just about every disease known, and been stitiched up and put back together more often than I can count.

The year he broke his leg my vet bill came to just under £12,000 - thank god for insurance.

Just to emphasize- a full break, leg blowing in the wind, is still a death sentence unless the owner is a multimillionaire amd the break is simple and the horse is lucky. Barbaro was the first horse afaik to come out of surgery with such a severe injury (his bone was shattered. His xrays are online I believe). And with a great team and round the clock care he still succumbed to laminitis. Adult horses can not survive on three legs. Their hoof bone- the coffin bone- unzips from the tissue support and punches through the hoof capsule. Is not nice.

There was a draftie with a prosthetic foot once, as an aside. Pretty amazing that it worked out for the horse (at least for awhile. I don't know how his story ended)

Fenika said:

Just to emphasize- a full break, leg blowing in the wind, is still a death sentence unless the owner is a multimillionaire amd the break is simple and the horse is lucky. Barbaro was the first horse afaik to come out of surgery with such a severe injury (his bone was shattered. His xrays are online I believe). And with a great team and round the clock care he still succumbed to laminitis. Adult horses can not survive on three legs. Their hoof bone- the coffin bone- unzips from the tissue support and punches through the hoof capsule. Is not nice.

There was a draftie with a prosthetic foot once, as an aside. Pretty amazing that it worked out for the horse (at least for awhile. I don't know how his story ended)

Click to expand...

It's a horrible process and takes a lot of long term specialised and dedicated care and for the vast majority of horses it's not fair to put them through it.

That said, sometimes you are lucky, like I was.

Over here you'll see valuable breeding stock in slings sometimes after a break, but that's a horrible experience for everyone.

I've seen a couple of horses wearing pots over the years which are of uncertain effectiveness, and a bastard to keep dry, especially if you have a dirty horse.

I've seen a couple of foals with breaks and they definately heal faster and there's a much higher survival rate than in older horses. Like everything else, the older the horses, the less likely recovery is, and the more financially impractical it becomes.

Also, a lot of insurance companies won't pay out for a break. I was very lucky that mine did, but only after a specialists report and their own guys reviewing the xrays etc, but by that stage the horses had already had the treatment, and had not only survived by was recovering really well, so they couldn't really argue too much about it.

Shaldna, I cross posted with you earlier. Which bone and do you remember the technical name of the type of fracture? I'm curious

I'm glad it worked out And that your insurance paid.

Fenika said:

Shaldna, I cross posted with you earlier. Which bone and do you remember the technical name of the type of fracture? I'm curious

I'm glad it worked out And that your insurance paid.

Click to expand...

Left hind fibula - it was the result of a kick. Very clean and neat, can't remember the terms they uses, if I find my copy of the vet report I'll let you know, but we are moving house so everything is all over the place.

Ah, very lucky then. The fibula is small in a horse and doesn't bear weight as it doesn't reach from joint to joint. It still has muscles pulling on it so maybe a piece broke off that they had to repair surgically? You did say clean and neat though...


My mare fractured her cannon bone once, on the side. This is a common injury and she did okay after stall rest (the stall rest itself was not fun but I was studying overseas at the time). Initially she was barely weight bearing but the meds helped and laminitis didn't become an issue.

yeah, i was lucky. the very said if it had been a front leg then he would have insisted on the horse being put down.